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Alaska’s reality television spotlight continues to shine, only now it’s focusing in on family values. The latest TV series to hit the last frontier is hoping to highlight a “true” Alaskan family, one with multigenerational personalities and survival skills galore.
Amberlee Mucha is the talent development producer for Wilma Productions, the company currently trying to cast this ideal family.
“So we’re looking for families out there in Alaska and the Yukon who really have the pioneer spirit, are really gritty and like eat, breathe, sleep, live Alaska to the core. They’re the type of family that maybe they don’t live off the grid now but they have tons of experience out in the wilderness. They can tame a grizzly bear, hunt for anything, they can find food, water.”

Mucha said the premise of the show will take this particular family
out of their typical environment into a new one to test their skills.
“So this isn’t a
docu-series. We’re not following them around in their everyday life.
We’re really taking them on this adventure and seeing what they’re made
of.”
She said the show is having casting calls in Wasilla today, and will
be in Fairbanks on Wednesday and Thursday. If that’s too far of a trek
for interested Kodiak families, Mucha said they can get in touch with
the company’s producer via telephone to see if they might be a good fit
for the show. Those interested can contact 415-670-0119.

Wilma Productions certainly isn’t the first company to seek out the
many real-life characters Alaska has to offer, or the state’s wilderness
backdrop. Mucha said she thinks people are so enamored with Alaska
because it seems so far removed from the lower 48.
“And I think that in a lot of
ways we long to be kind of in that position where we really can trust
our instincts and trust our abilities to take care of ourselves. As a
city slicker, if you put me in the middle of the wilderness I would just
probably perish immediately because I have no understanding or skills
or anything. And I think that the way everyone lives in these remote
places up in Alaska, it’s not even, and it’s just nature. It’s just the
way that they live and they don’t even think about it. And I think that
is really what it is to the rest of us that is so fascinating and we
just can’t get enough of it.”
She said the idea for this particular show came from shows like
Survivor, and the production company’s desire to bring family dynamics
into the mix.
“And see how they’re going to
pull together and with any good family, you love them the most and they
drive you the craziest. So I think that that’s part of it too – seeing
how a family can come together and get under each other’s skin, but at
the end of the day they still love each other and they’re still there to
help each other out. And that just makes good TV.”
Mucha said the company is looking for the “right” family, and will
develop the whole show around whatever schedule that family may need.